CAPTAIN'S LOGSTARSHIP ENTERPRISENCC-1701-B (C&C 37+)

A running Captain's Log of the sailing and racing yacht "Starship Enterprise"

Captain’s Log: Stardate 10639.7After some back and forth with the shipyards, a new starter has been installed and the Enterprise was once again ready for active duty. Yesterday, Commander Richard and I brought her over to the dock at Starbase One (CIYC,) flushed the water system, cleaned the deck and waited for the crew to arrive for our first Wednesday Night race of the season.

Hence our biggest challenge of the night – waiting for the crew to arrive. The amount of no-shows was more than the shows. While Commander Jory and Ensign Bill had excuses (I’m not saying they were good excuses – just excuses,) there was no sign of Lt. Kurt, Ensign Sid, Crewman Nate, or Crewman Ozzy, who, from what I’m told, had called Lt. Commander Mitch saying he would like to be promoted in rank. Um, Ozzy? I’m not sure how promotions work in your world, but as far as I can tell, a good start might be to, well, to be honest, SHOW UP!

Luckily, Dave Z, originally from USS Mustang Sally, needed a ride for the night as well as Sally, who, to the best we can figure, is an insane person (sailing a 20-footer to Maine from Baltimore.) I don’t even like driving a 20-foot car to Baltimore.

Also on board for our first mission of the season was First Officer Dave (who waited until after he got his new crew shirt to tell me what races he’ll be missing – there’s a tactician for you,) Lt. Commander Mitch, and for his first outing, Crewman Jonathan.

But where was Yeoman Zoraida? Time’s running out. We’re going to be late. The communicator chirps. She’s coming. We’re waiting. Waiting. Waiting. We’re going to be late. She’s running now. With a pink bag of pastries in her hand. Time is short. We’re going to be late.

And we were. “Z”, as we’ll be calling her, with all due respect to Zorro (but let’s face it, the second movie did stink,) hopped on board leaving us only a few minutes to get out to the starting area, get the sails set, figure out crew positions, and start the race. Our start was horrible and we spent the night taking flyers in hopes to find some phantom breeze and catch up to the fleet. They say that only 10% of the time will a flyer pay off in yacht racing. This was not one of those times.

Deciding to throw the new people directly “into the fire,” Jonathan helped run the cockpit while Z jumped right into the bow work with Dave. Both did an amazing job, and I can clearly see they will both fit in very well on the Enterprise.

We didn’t finish well at all, but it was all just a learning experience. Afterwards, at the clubhouse, Jonathan asked what went right tonight and what went wrong.

Dave had the answer, while using his rank to claim a mini-éclair out of Z’s pink bag. “One new person brought pastries with them, and one did not.”